Attorneys

Silicon Valley Billionaire Vinod Khosla Forced To Allow Access To The Beach He Had Blocked

September 24, 2014

News World Today

San Mateo County Court Judge Barbara Mallach has ruled against Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla in a lawsuit more than public access to Martin’s Beach.

According to the ruling, Khosla will be necessary to seek a permit from the California Coastal Commission just before locking gates at the beach, as properly as to seek the advice of with the neighborhood to decide modifications to the property and public access to the beach.

“Today’s court selection upholding the Coastal Act is an critical victory for Martin’s Beach and eventually strengthens the publics right to beach access in California,” says Angela Howe, Esq., Legal Director for the Surfrider Foundation, who had filed suit against Khosla. “The Surfrider Foundation remains vigilant to shield beach access rights, not only in this case, but also in other cases exactly where the beach is wrongfully cut off from the public.”

Surfrider initial filed suit in March of 2013, and most of the arguments took place this previous July.

The setting for the heated legal battle is Martin’s Beach, a gorgeous, secluded stretch of oceanfront located just south of Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County.

Khosla blocked public access to the beach&nbspafter acquiring&nbspa 53-acre parcel there in 2008. He reportedly paid $ 37.five million for the house.

A couple of months after Khosla created the obtain, a gate leading from the Pacific Coast Highway down to the parking lot was locked, and indicators forbidding entry had been posted. Anybody&nbspcould conceivably walk around the gate, but only those with the right key code could get it to open wide enough for automobiles to access the parking lots beneath.

“It is a family members beach that was open to the neighborhood for generations,” Angela Howe, Legal Director for the Surfrider Foundation, said to Organization Insider in early September. “That’s the most egregious offense right here.”

The&nbspCalifornia Coastal Act was designed in 1976 to maximize public access to the state’s beaches.&nbspThere are now far more than 1,150 public access points on the California coast in the form of state parks, stairways, and narrow paths.

Surfrider’s argument was that Khosla was in violation of the California Coastal Act when he changed the nature of public access to Martin’s Beach ahead of obtaining a permit from the California Coastal Commission.&nbspHis lawyers also claimed that Khosla created road and drainage improvements without having the necessary permits... (To read the entire article, please click HERE)